Jack Breaux - Running For Sheriff and EBR Mayor-president

Running For Sheriff and EBR Mayor-president

In 1975 and 1976, Breaux unsuccessfully sought election as a Republican for sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish and for the Baton Rouge mayor-president position, a combined municipal-parish office. In the sheriff's race, Breaux, who was opposing Democratic incumbent J. Al Amiss (pronounced AIM ISS), ran third with 19.6 percent and narrowly missed a general election berth. Amiss led the field with 31.9 percent, and another Democrat, D.P. "Skip" D'Amico trailed with 22.9 percent in the primary. Amiss defeated D'Amico and served from 1972 until his death early in 1983. A Republican, Elmer Litchfield, was subsequently the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff from 1983 until his retirement in 2006 because of health problems and subsequent death.

Breaux ran third again in the 1976 primary for the mayor-presidency, having finished with 21.7 percent to the incumbent Democrat Mayor-President Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Dumas, who nearly prevailed outright with 47.3 percent of the ballots. The second-place candidate was the outgoing Democratic mayor of neighboring Baker, Norman E. "Pete" Heine, who polled 27 percent in the primary. In 2001, a Baker Republican, Bobby Simpson, became mayor-president, but he was unseated after one term in 2004 by the African American Democrat Kip Holden, a former state representative. Simpson had succeeded a Democrat-turned-Republican Tom Ed McHugh, who served three terms as mayor-president from 1989–2001 and was later the executive director of the Louisiana Municipal Association.

Breaux hence in a sense paved the way for the future breakthroughs by the Republicans Litchfield and Simpson.